Out for morning walkies, the dog owner says, aloud:

No.

(Very good. The dog needs to understand No, and has even at times hinted that she does so.)

And then comes:

Uh-uh. No way.

(Hmm. Well, all right: it’s said in the same tone as No, and immediately follows it. So yes, within the limits of plausibility, the dog may read into one’s tone the continued sense of disapproval, the establishment of and the insistence upon boundaries.)

But then things deteriorate, and the dog owner finds himself having said, a split-second too late:

Sophie, stop. There is not a single circumstance under which you may go down this neighbor’s driveway. You know better than that. Have I ever let you go down this driveway?

The dog stops pulling at the leash. The dog turns, looks back at the man at the other end of the leash. The dog tilts her head, quizzically.